Power Restored to Most Areas of San Francisco After Massive Outage

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said about 17,000 customers were without power as of noon Sunday. PG&E said its crews were working to restore power to several neighborhoods and small areas of downtown San Francisco following Saturday’s outage.

PG&E said in a statement that it expects to restore power to remaining customers no later than 2 p.m. Monday.

“Damage from the fire at our substation was significant and extensive, and repairs and safe restoration will be complex,” the utility said, referring to the substation at 8th and Mission streets. This fire was blamed for some power outages. The outage is still under investigation.

PG&E said it mobilized additional engineers and electricians to assist with restoration efforts.

“This is a very complex work plan and will require the highest level of safety focus to ensure safe work actions,” PG&E said. No injuries were reported.

The outage, which occurred shortly after 1 p.m. on Saturday, left a large, growing area in the northern part of the city without power. At its peak, the outage represented roughly a third of the utility’s customers in the city.

Around 4 p.m. Saturday, PG&E reported that it had stabilized the grid at X and no further outages were expected.

Social media posts and local media reported that restaurants and stores were closed en masse and street lights and Christmas decorations were darkened on Saturday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said there were “significant transit disruptions” across the city in X and urged residents to avoid unnecessary travel and treat traffic signals as four-way stops. Waymo, the operator of driverless ride-hailing vehicles, has suspended its services. At least one video posted on social media appeared to show a Waymo vehicle stopped in the middle of the intersection.